Social networking has become a popular way for people to follow what other people are doing. For example, Twitter is a service available at http://twitter.com that allows people, called followers, to receive updates any time the followed individual posts updates to a Twitter data center. When a followed person makes a post to the Twitter data center, the post is delivered via a method chosen by the followers for delivery of the posts. Using the Twitter service, the posts are typically short, because the service limits the size of the post to 140 characters.
One method for delivering Twitter updates to followers is short message service (SMS). As Twitter and similar social networking services are becoming more popular, the volume of SMS traffic due to such social networking has increased. One problem associated with this increased volume of traffic due to social networking is that the traffic utilizes network resources associated with the delivery of SMS messages and issues can arise as to who should pay for the utilization of those resources. For example, in some countries, subscribers do not pay for receiving SMS messages. When a mobile subscriber is roaming outside of his or her home network and receives a large volume of social networking messages transmitted via SMS, the mobile network operator of the network in which the party is roaming may look to the mobile subscriber's home network provider to pay for the delivery of the social networking messages. Because the home network provider does not charge for delivery of SMS messages to its subscribers, the home network provider may look to the social networking message provider to pay for the delivery of messages. Social networking providers, such as Twitter, do not charge followers for delivery of such messages. Accordingly, the social networking provider must pay the home network provider for delivery of its traffic so that the home network provider can reimburse the roaming network provider. Such charges may result in the social networking message provider eliminating or reducing the flow of messages to some mobile networks.
In light of these difficulties, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for providing mobile network operator controlled content using social networking messages.